New Mission president and fourth of July!

This week was soo good!!  We met our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Fife.  They are amazing!  We had a 3 hour meeting with them on Thursday and I left feeling so excited and uplifted.  He worked for seminarys and institutes and he said he has been teaching our age group since before we were born.  He is so funny and so loving!  

Earlier that morning we had a lesson with one of our investigators who has decided that he wants to be baptized!!  He just absorbs so much information and is so ready and willing to learn and to apply what we teach! And it all started when his friend invited him to come to church...small and simple things.

We also celebrated the 4th of July!  Well as much as we could...no fireworks, but we wore red white and blue and sang patriotic songs and whatnot and I decorated Sister De Vera's planner and when I woke up she had decorated mine like crazy.  But I noticed that when I was writing in the days, I wasn't paying attention and I wrote June 4th.  Didn't notice that until someone pointed it out...shame ha.

 

Hope you are having a great week so far!  I just wanted to let you know that I am so grateful for your influence and example already.  Hope Sister Fife is feeling better today!

This last week was so good!  It had it's ups and downs of course, but that's how we stretch and grow.  I was thinking about it and the bigger the ups are, the bigger the downs will be--just in contrast, and also because when you are having success and working really hard, Satan is going to work really hard to stop you.  But he can't.

One night we were following up with a potential from ages ago.  They asked us to come back another time, and so when we left, we decided to knock on another door.  We said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to lead us to which house we should knock on to know who was ready to hear the gospel.  Within seconds of ending our prayer, Sister De Vera started walking to left and this man was walking by on the sidewalk.  We talked to him for a minute, and he said he had to continue walking the dogs really fast, but that his wife was home if we went over to this house.  We went there and no one answered, but we knocked on another door and then saw him come home and we went back.  They let us in immediately and were so sweet.  They are a young couple--she's from Brazil and he is from Canada.  We began to teach the restoration, but we weren't able to really because it was too late.  

They both grew up Catholic but really didn't have much to do with religion or with Christ until 2013 when they were having a hard time in their marriage and financially and turned to a religious group for help.  Heavenly Father led us to them and quickly, but I'm not sure why, but we weren't as bold as we should have been.  But I learned a lesson from it.  Never be afraid to be bold and never be afraid to invite.  She said she was looking for a church, but one that didn't start at 9am.  We both laughed a bit because our ward starts at 9, and I think after that we were a bit nervous--and we didn't invite them to church right then, we planned on inviting them the next time we saw them.  But I definitely learned my lesson to just be bold and always invite.  Because the next day she was with her work colleague and she asked him if he knew God.  Turns out he is also a pastor or minister and he invited them to church on Sunday a couple hours before we actually invited them.  She said she would come with us next Sunday.   

The Liahona FHE I talked about a few weeks ago.  :)  

I absolutely love this ward and this area!  The members are wonderful.  We are working on helping more of them get excited about missionary work.  We also really want to work with the youth (this ward is more elderly, so there's about 4 young women...and right now they are in the middle of calling young women's leaders, so there isn't a yw presidency.  We are going to try to help out with them and get the youth excited about missionary work especially.  They have so much power and potential.

I can't really think of what else happened this week...oh we went to these markets on Saturday to contact people...it was waay too busy, but we decided we are going back during lunch next weekend (mostly because they have a crepe stand. So stoked.)  It was the coolest place!  

Also as of this last week, I have been out for 11 months and Sister De Vera has been out for 7!!

Oh and I really liked this invitation from the first presidency of the church:
We invite all to pray that people everywhere will have their hearts softened to the truths God established in the beginning, and that wisdom will be granted to those who are called upon to decide issues critical to society’s future.

I've been learning a lot about the power of prayer lately.  There are blessings Heavenly Father wants to give us and those around us, but we need to ask in prayer before He can work with us.  We have to be willing to accept the blessings He offers.  I don't know if that made sense, but if not, oh well.

Have a great week!! LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Sister Formica